Billionaire Hinduja Hits Lima for More Business, Less Ego

April 26 (Bloomberg) -- Prakash Hinduja, the scion of one
of India’s richest families, was crossing the lobby of the
Westin hotel in Lima when Swiss technology entrepreneur Carlos
Moreira called out to him.

Interrupting an interview on the sidelines of this week’s
World Economic Forum on Latin America, Moreira jumped from his
chair to shake hands with the Indian billionaire. After the two
men spoke for a few minutes, Moreira resumed the interview,
explaining that he’s trying to take his online-security venture,
Wisekey SA, to India, and that the Hindujas have the banking
license he needs in order to do so.

“Davos is very high-level, so that means that people are
extremely busy,” Moreira said, referring to the forum’s better-known annual meeting in Switzerland. “Here is more business;
here is cutting the deal. The lobby is one of the best networks
on earth.”

This week’s event in Peru is one of the half-dozen regional
offshoots that keep the Davos conversations -- and deal-making -
- running almost year-round. Moreira has also attended the East
Asian edition, while Hinduja has attended at least two of the
eight Latin ones so far, and both men said the meetings had
yielded deals.

“It’s an ongoing process,” Hinduja said in an interview
at the close of the forum yesterday, as attendees -- such as
billionaires Carlos Rodriguez Pastor, the Peruvian owner of
Intercorp Financial Services Inc., and Woods Staton, controller
of McDonald’s Corp. franchiser Arcos Dorados Holdings Inc. --
milled about and waiters doled out pisco sours.

The main difference, Hinduja said, is that there’s “less
ego” at the Latin edition.

Line of Presidents

“I met the president of Peru, I met the president of
Panama, I met the president of Mexico, and all three presidents
want us to come to their country,” he said. “The ministers and
all these people are very down to earth. They want to grow; the
eagerness is there.”

Hinduja said he wants to buy call centers in Latin America
to mirror the outsourcing empire his family already commands in
their home country. He and his three brothers also control
IndusInd Bank Ltd., which has a market value of $4.5 billion,
and Ashok Leyland Ltd., India’s second-largest truck maker,
worth $1.1 billion, among other diversified ventures across the
globe.

Prakash Hinduja, 67, was accompanied by his daughter Shanu,
who, he said, he wants to introduce to the world’s power brokers
as she takes an increasing role in the family business.